Tiny Girl With A Huge Impact

Baby Mezlyn at 1 week old.

(A story I wrote for the ship's website about a baby I met in Daru.)

In a tiny room off the maternity ward in Daru General Hospital sat a small plastic bed. In it, a 1.1 kilograms baby girl slept, her minimal waking moments filled with a small, heart-breaking cry.  If size were an indicator of strength, baby Mezlyn would be written off.  The fight to live, however, is not based on size.  This tiny girl was a huge miracle.

Her 22-year-old mother, who Mezlyn was named after, died from typhoid soon after she prematurely gave birth to Mezlyn. Her story should be rare, but even today, rural Papua New Guinea (PNG) sees one in seven women die in child birth. Even worse than the statistic, it is hard to see young women and mothers die of a preventable disease.  Typhoid is a disease that can be easily prevented with sanitation and hygiene.

While Mezlyn struggled to make it just one more day, the YWAM Medical Ships Australia (YWAM MSA) team was grateful for the opportunity to help bring education to the nurses and medical workers of the Western Province of PNG.  The volunteers were also able to educate on pregnancy risks and high risk births in order to make more stories like Mezlyn’s obsolete.

Me holding Mezlyn in Daru.

Unfortunately, the day after the Medical Ship left Daru, baby Mezlyn’s fight ended.  After only two-and-a-half weeks of life, she passed away.  Her struggle, however, was a reminder to YWAM MSA of the need of continued work in that region.

There was hardly an hour during clinic days and on free weekends when baby Mezlyn was not visited by a group of YWAM MSA volunteers.  She was held, loved, sang to, and fed by the hands of not just nurses but even crew on board the ship.

Baby Mezlyn’s story, like so many others from the Western Province, has captured the heart of the volunteers and staff in YWAM MSA.

As YWAM MSA continues to partner and work alongside the medical workers in PNG, they will continue to strengthen local resources, creating a healthier Western Province